Mother and Son

Especially for Maria and Rhys, but also all of my friends. Aussies will mostly remember this programme (unless too young!), but it may be new to everyone who reads this blog from beyond our shores! Enjoy!

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

It feels like I have a dose of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) today. Most will know that PTSD can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event such as an assault, and after yesterday, this is where I’ve landed, even though I can still type, which according to a dear friend, I’ll still be…

Excellent response re negative language

I’ve been watching a series called “The Broken Brain”, where the focus is on healing using holistic and lifestyle changes. Many, including me, have believed in the power of the mind and a healthy lifestyle being able to heal disease and change our thinking, including dementia. Thankfully science is catching up. Anyway, the use of…

Living… or labelled by disease?

Perhaps it is a great idea, but surely, labelling where we live, shop or eat and have coffee by our disease or condition, is simply another form of keeping the myths alive, as well as ensuring a continued sense of ‘otherness’. It is definitely another form of segregation. And yet, the emergence of Dementia Villages, or…

The philosophy of Stoicism: Massimo Pigliucci

Thanks to a special friend Valerie Schache for leading me to this video. It is exactly what I needed to see today! As always, every day, every moment, every unexpected gift is perfect. Being courageous, respectful, honest, loyal and facing up to everything, including the negative things that happen to you, does take a little…

R.I.P. Susan Suchan

During the night, the world lost an incredible human being and dementia advocate. Personally, I lost a very dear friend, and I have no doubt her family and closer friends will be even more devastated than we are in my house. Susan was one of my heroes, and I will miss her presence in life…

“Drug-Induced Dementia : A Perfect Crime” by GE Jackson

If you read the latest academic or other dementia Journals, you may have seen two articles available for loan in Sydney, and of interest to anyone in the dementia space. Professor Henry Brodarty (psychogeriatrician) has created a DVD titled Antipsychotics and dementia : managing medications, where he, Dr Julian Pierre (GP) and Tim Perry (consultant pharmacist) discuss…

Aged Care Diversity Framework Consultation Survey

Today I received the information below from Dementia Australia, and felt it important  to share it here, as many who read my blog are based here. Together, if we participate in these types of surveys or get involved in submissions for aged and dementia care, maybe things will eventually change. IMO, there is little point…

Dementia changed my life

This is the also the full article by Wong Kim Hoh the Straits Times Senior Writer, It Changed My Life: Author, activist and poet living with dementia, an interview done for The Straits Times in Asia last year during my trip to support Alzheimer’s Disease Association Singapore. Dementia definitely changed my life. Mostly, for the better.  (Kate Swaffer, © 2018)…